a food journey

Posts tagged “Spring”

I was on a roll. I lost 10 lbs starting back on Weight Watchers. I was diligent. Intentional. I was a total PLANNER. I was really feeling good and then I had sinus surgery. I will spare you the delicious details, but let’s just say that it took me a minute (or two) to recover. Then we had the most beautiful first week of Spring and I wasn’t sick and I could smell and taste everything.

So I celebrated.

And the celebration lasted a little longer than it should have and well, I’m back to the drawing board.

Here’s the other thing: When I was following the rules and being mindful of my meals, I was also prepping and planning the weekend before. I’m not the person that can just fly by the seat of my pants because when they ask me if I want fries with that, my answer will ALWAYS be yes. Here’s where I should defend myself in some way, but the truth is I have VERY low will power. With everything. So, planning is a necessity. And I’m going to need all of us Weight Watcher folks to be in solidarity with each other and not pretend that planning and prepping isn’t part of the success because it totally is.

I’m proud to report that I’m back on it this week. Or at least that’s the plan. How many times can I say plan in this entry? I reckon we’ve found us a theme, folks.

Though I usually focus solely on Skinnytaste recipes, I randomly decided to look at 101 Cookbooksthis weekend and was totally inspired. Probably because her site is just gorgeous, but it could also be the Spring veggies I’m seeing on the farms (I work at Jones Valley Teaching Farm for those of you new to FoodRevival).

Or maybe it was that beautiful first week of Spring despite the crazy pollen (just look at my shoes).

Whatever the inspiration, the following recipes spoke to me. Actually, they hollered at me. And so I made them. I also went ahead and entered in everything on the Weight Watchers website so I could include the points as well.

First up: Double Broccoli Quinoa
At 8 points per serving, this recipe is a little higher in points than I’d like, but I’m just going to eat it sparingly.

This was definitely more involved than the first recipe. Per her suggestion, I went ahead and made homemade Sofrito for the Paella. A sofrito is a sauce that is used as a base in Spanish dishes. It was super easy and I’m glad I took the time to do it.

Next up: The Paella.

I must admit that the recipe as written intimidated me. I kept worrying that I would burn the rice, but miraculously I followed the directions and it turned out great. It didn’t get the “crust” she mentioned, but I’ll keep trying.

Finally, I had to do something with the bananas that were going brown on my counter, so I found my way back to Skinnytaste and made her Banana Bread. This recipe is 4 points per slice (though I went ahead and made one BIG ‘ol loaf instead of two) so it may have more points, actually. The only thing I did different was use a cup of whole wheat flour with the all purpose flour.

So there you have it! I’m excited to get back on track and looking forward to ALL of these meals this week. If you want the recipes, simply click on the title of each section where I list the title of the recipe and it will take you directly to the website.

As I promised yesterday, I am eager to slow down a bit this week and rely on some basic ingredients to pull me through this Weight Watchers week. First up: Grilled Meat. Apologies in advance to my Vegetarian readers, but I decided to go ahead and grill out today (okay, okay…I decided to ask my husband to grill out because he actually likes doing it). Here’s my menu: Grilled Chicken and Spinach Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette courtesy of Skinnytaste.com (5 points): I haven’t actually tasted this yet, but it smells delicious. Will update you as I know more. Grilled Pesto Chicken: Not sure how many points this has because all I did was pound two chicken breasts to uniform thickness and added to a storage…